Have you ever seen a band that was so brutal it felt like they could tear you
apart within an inch of your life and yet leaving you begging for more?
...the war hasn't started...it hasn't even begun...
apart within an inch of your life and yet leaving you begging for more?
...the war hasn't started...it hasn't even begun...
Stats:
NJ, Swindon (UK)
The Vic
23rd May 2003
Support:
Me Without You (US)
The Hurt Process (UK)
Burning Skies (UK)
Norma Jean (Swindon, The Vic back in May 2003)
Lets start off with names and ages
Im 20 and the youngest one, the average age is 22 the oldest is 24.
Are any of you married or anything like that?
Our singers married
Could you just go through everyones names?
Yea Im Daniel and I play drums, Our singers name is Brad, our guitar players are Chris and Scotty and our bass player is Jake. Brad our singer is married and has a kid and our guitar player Chris is getting married in like less than a month. There all going home but Im staying over here for about 3 weeks to travel around. Greece, Italy & Europetomorrow we head over to Belgium, taking the ferry over and driving.
I saw a huge tour bus, is that you guys?
Yea
bloody hell man!
Its insane, was it the record label that did that for you?
No, all three bands are on the bus together, we could have been in three vans and had three drivers or whatever, it didnt work out cheaper at all but like it came pretty close, because we would have had a place to stay every night.
Im the guy that normally offers bands a place to stay, whenever the guys need a place to stay for a band they usually come to me
Theres around 20 people on the bus between the bands a couple of girlfriends and one driver, two of the girlfriends came with From Me Without You, we also have a merch. dude and a sound guy
I dont know if Im right but where are Me Without You from?
Philadelphia & were from Atlanta, Georgia.
What about the label just to confirm it is Solid State, which is owned by Tooth and Nail?
Yea it is
Because I was confused because if you look at the spine of the CD design it say IND then a number so I thought maybe it was release by Indecision records.
It might say Solid State
It does
Because were on Solid State, it is Tooth and Nail but its the hardcore-metal, it the same distribution and everything.
Going back to a biog. How was it Norma Jean was formed and who was it that started it up?
Well we were a different band me and the two guitar players were together in a band for 5 years, we dont like to talk about that or anything, we just changed the name and got a couple of new members and became Norma Jean.
So it wouldnt be a band I already know or would have heard of?
You might have but we dont like to talk about it so
Reallywhy not?
Cause its a stupid band and a stupid name
Do you think I will know it?
You might I dont knowmost cool kids dont know who we were!
Whats your definition of cool kidsyou mean scenesters?
Nah Im not on about scenesters, but anyway weve playing together for about three years now and this is our third time over to Europe
Third Time?
Second time as Norma Jean, but
In a joking fashion I try to get Daniel to confess the name of the previous band
I can tell you just dont put into writing, we used to be a band called Ive heard of the singer with that name
Yea a lot of people think that is the whole reason why we changed our name, but we hated that name, didnt really like itits cool when people dont even mention we used to be a different band.
We toured a lot by that band, played a lot of really big shows, and put out CDs. Norma Jean for two years but really its been five years, touring non-stop 6-8 months out of the year pretty much. With in the last two or three years weve probably played 400 shows
So with the release of Bless the child (kill the martyr) has it become more hectic? I can remember wanting to go to Hellfest in New York this year and of course the band a lot of kids were talking about was you guys
Oh really?
(You did play that right) yea
When I hear people talk about hardcore (metalcore) your name is always mentioned. I got the album last January and I can remember being so excited about the whole thing.
Its ment to be really good this year too! (Hellfest)
Hellfest is the definitive hardcore festival at the moment
Yea, seriously, its so insane, every good hardcore band plays it
Were there any initial impulses in the beginning five years ago, about your goals as a band? Some have the attitude that all they want to do is play shows and that is as far as it goes. Whereas others have more of a determination to get themselves out there for many people to hear
We had no idea that it would bring us this far, like hanging out in New York or sitting here and doing an interview, its insane but um we started in high school. Just playing for fun & we were not Christians at the time and we came to know that a little more and we became more serious. We were putting everything we had into this and pretty much stopped doing everything else everybody graduated high school I was still in high school, and I ended up doing home schooling for my senior year, so we could tour, so we toured
And your parents allowed you to do that?
Yea, I just ordered some stuff online about home schooling I got my high school diploma and everything.
Did any of you go to college?
Our guitarist went to college but he quit
Have you got aspirations to continue with education, once the band.
Not really unless its something like art school, because I do a lot of art and do a lot of media stuff / videos
That would be a really interesting road to go down getting into video / media design work
Thats what I want to do
So from now what does it feel like to see all your hard work with a critically acclaimed (yes I did the hand motions in a sarcastic English formDaniel found this humorous) within the scene. Which appears to be receiving much applause from both zines and from word of mouth and to be headlining a tour in the UK
Oh its the craziest thing ever!
If you could sum it up in one word?
Its pretty incredible I guess, unreal really I find it strange when we stop off for gas at the service stations and then walk back to this bus, its untrue. I ask myself how is this real?
Does it feel more like a dream than reality?
Yea its definitely the greatest thing I could imagine. Its great.
Your also heading on to Europe after this? Where you are playing and which ones are you most looking forward too?
Were heading to Germany, Italy, Holland and Belgium. So Im going to be looking forward to playing in Berlin cause the last time we played there it was awesome and really cool. Our tour ends in Holland near Amsterdam and Im meeting up with some friends, hiring a van and going through France and Italy.
I wanted to know was there a concept with the album layout?
Not necessarily, I guess people can take from it what they want. We just told the people who were doing the artwork that we wanted something crazy I guess and thats the first thing he came up with and we though it was amazing. A guy name Ryan Clark did it, him & his brother (Dom Clark) are in a band called Training for Utopia and they are also on Solid State. They sound like our more chaotic partsreally, really, really good if I had a copy on me Id give it to you now. The other Design Company that did our artwork is called Asterik.
Could you also explain the content of the lyricsthere were none in the CD layout
It was supposed to have been but they are in fact printed in the first pressing of the CD. The lyrics should be inside on all the pages. It came out way lighter than it should have been which sucks but its kind of cool. I dont know very much about the lyrics we actually had a different singer on the CD. Our singer on the CD quit the band so I dont really know too much about it some of its personal some of its not.
The week before the CD was released the singer and bass player both quit the band. They just felt that there time with the band was done. It was kind of like they went in a different direction and we knew if the band was supposed to go on that it would all work out and its definitely turned out for the better. We did a tour with 18 Visions, Everytime I Die and Hopesfall thinking about it, if the band was supposed to have gone on it would have worked; we got a new singer and also a bassplayer.
Go to www.normajeannoise.com for those lyrics.
We all know Norma Jean was the original name of Marilyn Monroe and you probably get asked this every single time you do an interview but were there any specific reason behind the name?
That was the original reason behind it. We looked into it a little bit more and we found out that Norma means pattern, and we were going to use the word pattern in our name originally like the something pattern or pattern in our name but we couldnt think of anything. Then we found out that Norma means pattern and we looked up Jean and it means grace & mercy together Norma Jean means patterns of grace and mercy. So we thought that was pretty cool
As a joke you should have T-shirts printed up with that on it. What were your parents like when they heard the album? I have a funny little story to tell youI interviewed From Autumn To Ashes last year and Ben the singer was telling me how his mum and dad would wear the bands T-shirts around town and kids would come up to them and ask how do you know FATA? They would then say Its actually my sons band so
Do your parents like your music?
My mum doesnt necessarily like our music but she says when were on tour she will listen to it in the car sometimes and think about me and stuff.
Do they all miss you?
Yea, but all of our parents are really supportive! They have been the whole time, its well cool.
Which leads onto the next question. You grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, what were your childhoods like what were the areas you were brought up in like?
Most of us lived right outside of the (incoherent) but our two new guys, are from different places like our new singer is from Alabama, which is the state right next to Georgia and our new bass player grew up all over the place in Alaska, Michigan, Florida.
Because of his parents?
Yea, Now he lives in Atlanta too but as for childhoods pretty much I played in the woods a lot, built wood fires
Do you live in Atlanta cause its a big city?
The suburbs like 20 minutes outside the city centre.
What are the communities like, because I know like in Swindon, there isnt much of a community feel, its a go-go-go materialistic town and all that
Theres a little down town area, but its a pretty big city with lots and lots of people, like the high school I went to had about 1,000 kids in one grade (school year) like when I graduated there were a thousand of us.
Is there a subject in interviews which is never touched upon but youd want to talkabout
(Daniel laughs ok so its a daft question) not really?
Are any of you straight edge?
Nah
Not Christian Straight Edge?
We dont drink, smoke or do drugs, but
What is your opinion of straight edge & the kids that get into it?
As far as I know most of the straight edge kids are cool, Ive met a lot of kids who come out to our shows who are straight edge.
Do you get a lot of straight edge kids coming to the shows?
Yea definitely but its not really like, I think its a cool thing for those kids if thats what they need to do at that time, its definitely helped a lot of kids stay off drugs
Were you raised with a Christian background?
No, not really, as far as it goes none of us were really brought up as Christians. I guess the two new guys were but before they were in the band none of the band had been raised Christians, we all moved towards it together as friends, we all became Christians within a couple of weeks.
Was there any particular reason?
We had met some kids at our high school who had a Christian band, and we really didnt know what that was and they invited us to a show and we all became friends one day they invited me and our guitarist Scotty to a service. Id been for Christmas & Easter services before.
What sort of church?
It was non-denominational
If you want to know about Christianity you shouldnt have to have the information forced upon you
Definitely
Thats one of the things I think puts people off getting into something like Christianity, they dont realise that you dont have to go to church, you can be Christian and I suppose read the bible if you have the time, but mainly just living a good life
The bible is the standard for Christian living like its definitely helped me as a Christian. The bible is what I believe, its what tells us how to live a Christian lifestyle. Church is definitely good for building you up and encouraging you in life.
I actually got chucked out of Sunday school when I was younger I didnt feel the need to go or had the understanding whereas now its different.
There is no way you can understand such stuff at a such a young age but were definitely not about forcing our beliefs on everybody but everyone in our band is Christian its pretty much the reason we do it and that we stay on the road so much.
Is that what gives you the drive and inspiration? I know from interviewing bands it takes a lot to be in one and tour all the time with the same people and there annoying little habits, not only are you making a monetary commitment. Being in a band can leave you out of pocket, but if you have a wife and kids to support as well I can only imagine what a world of stress it must become
What was it that interested you in the label (Tooth & Nail) did you get offers from other companies?
We really werent that good back then so we didnt really have any cool offers, there were a couple of other labels, they have most of our favourite bands, Christian hardcore bands like Zao.
Are they a Christian label?
People always say that, they are not trying to be a Christian label but most of the people who work there are Christians and they also distribute through Christian bookstores. The Solid State bands are all heavy but Tooth and Nail is like mostly Christian bands.
Solid State also distributes their music through Christian bookstores?
Yea
Do a lot of people go to Church in the US
I guess, most people dont go, even before I was a Christian I knew nothing about the bible nothing about being Christian I would have though I was a Christian I grew up hearing about it in America everyone is kind of Christian ever if they dont know it.
When ever I look in an American bands thank yous the first one is usually a spiritual thankyou
I think many Americans even if they havent been to Church say that they are Christian
(Some of the guys from Me without You start hollering we inevitably loose our place and revert back to the conversation involving bands on solid state)
a band called Spitfire, Living Sacrifice, Zao, Training For Utopia all good bands we just ended up signing with them, but its a big label Solid State is part of Tooth and Nail which is then half owned by EMI its like a million dollar company, theve probably released like 150 CDs but I dont know. Its pretty much like being on a major but it is still independent. In America there is a store called hot topic and its a cool kind of store, they sell like our CDs and merch. Its amazing. They sell like our shirts, Converge, Every Time I Die, 18 Visions its really cool.
Can you remember what you were doing when you found out about the deal and did you all celebrate?
Its really so long now I really dont remember I think I was just hanging out by my self in my room and I called the rest of the guys, Ive done our booking for the last 4/5 years Ive booked all of our tours
Did you sort this one out?
No we just worked with an agent at The Agency Group they book anybody from the Foo Fighters, The Strokes to Poison the Well so its a big agency.
Describe the perfect show?
When it sounds good on stage, (what about when the kids go nuts?) Its the most amazing thing ever, when kids are singing along and getting into it, jumping off stage and stuff, we havnt really had too much of that over here cause many of the kids dont know our songs but a lot of the kids have been singing along
Whats you reaction to kids asking you to sign something?
Im not like bothered by it, well do it, we think its kind of odd but whatever, if kidss want us to thats fine we wont turn them away!
How would you describe each of your personalities?
Our singer is really shy, sticks to himself a lot. I do all the business I guess, Scotty is the funny weird one I guess, were all pretty goofy and dumb its kinda hard to say what each person is like cause it depends on there moods at the time.
Where abouts do go to practise your songs?
It kind of changes, we used to practise in our old singers house but now our church lets us practise there, as of now we use the church
And what do they think about it?
They are totally supportive, they dont like the music but weve played in our church a few times they are really cool about it. Our friend runs a venue to put on shows which the church owns, its cool when hardcore bands come through. As far as the writing goes we havnt really written much with our new bass player and singer. I write a lot of the guitar parts as well as playing the drums. So Ive been writing a lot of the new stuff. Yea last week when we played Nottingham we got to the show really early and the sound guy wasnt there yet so we sat there and had a practise and I showed the rest of the guys this song I had written at home.
What about recording again
Probably at least another yet, were hoping to come back over here maybe this fall.
What sort of bands have you been impressed with recently?
Theres a new band on Solid State called Beloved, there CD is going to be coming out in a month, Me Without You. There some of our best friends, Converge, Dillenger Escape Plan, Botch.
My older sister kind of got me into music when I was like 11 or 12 and I was skating a lot.
Any shout outs to give, like websites to check out?
www.killingthecamera.com www.normajeannoise.com
Lets start off with names and ages
Im 20 and the youngest one, the average age is 22 the oldest is 24.
Are any of you married or anything like that?
Our singers married
Could you just go through everyones names?
Yea Im Daniel and I play drums, Our singers name is Brad, our guitar players are Chris and Scotty and our bass player is Jake. Brad our singer is married and has a kid and our guitar player Chris is getting married in like less than a month. There all going home but Im staying over here for about 3 weeks to travel around. Greece, Italy & Europetomorrow we head over to Belgium, taking the ferry over and driving.
I saw a huge tour bus, is that you guys?
Yea
bloody hell man!
Its insane, was it the record label that did that for you?
No, all three bands are on the bus together, we could have been in three vans and had three drivers or whatever, it didnt work out cheaper at all but like it came pretty close, because we would have had a place to stay every night.
Im the guy that normally offers bands a place to stay, whenever the guys need a place to stay for a band they usually come to me
Theres around 20 people on the bus between the bands a couple of girlfriends and one driver, two of the girlfriends came with From Me Without You, we also have a merch. dude and a sound guy
I dont know if Im right but where are Me Without You from?
Philadelphia & were from Atlanta, Georgia.
What about the label just to confirm it is Solid State, which is owned by Tooth and Nail?
Yea it is
Because I was confused because if you look at the spine of the CD design it say IND then a number so I thought maybe it was release by Indecision records.
It might say Solid State
It does
Because were on Solid State, it is Tooth and Nail but its the hardcore-metal, it the same distribution and everything.
Going back to a biog. How was it Norma Jean was formed and who was it that started it up?
Well we were a different band me and the two guitar players were together in a band for 5 years, we dont like to talk about that or anything, we just changed the name and got a couple of new members and became Norma Jean.
So it wouldnt be a band I already know or would have heard of?
You might have but we dont like to talk about it so
Reallywhy not?
Cause its a stupid band and a stupid name
Do you think I will know it?
You might I dont knowmost cool kids dont know who we were!
Whats your definition of cool kidsyou mean scenesters?
Nah Im not on about scenesters, but anyway weve playing together for about three years now and this is our third time over to Europe
Third Time?
Second time as Norma Jean, but
In a joking fashion I try to get Daniel to confess the name of the previous band
I can tell you just dont put into writing, we used to be a band called Ive heard of the singer with that name
Yea a lot of people think that is the whole reason why we changed our name, but we hated that name, didnt really like itits cool when people dont even mention we used to be a different band.
We toured a lot by that band, played a lot of really big shows, and put out CDs. Norma Jean for two years but really its been five years, touring non-stop 6-8 months out of the year pretty much. With in the last two or three years weve probably played 400 shows
So with the release of Bless the child (kill the martyr) has it become more hectic? I can remember wanting to go to Hellfest in New York this year and of course the band a lot of kids were talking about was you guys
Oh really?
(You did play that right) yea
When I hear people talk about hardcore (metalcore) your name is always mentioned. I got the album last January and I can remember being so excited about the whole thing.
Its ment to be really good this year too! (Hellfest)
Hellfest is the definitive hardcore festival at the moment
Yea, seriously, its so insane, every good hardcore band plays it
Were there any initial impulses in the beginning five years ago, about your goals as a band? Some have the attitude that all they want to do is play shows and that is as far as it goes. Whereas others have more of a determination to get themselves out there for many people to hear
We had no idea that it would bring us this far, like hanging out in New York or sitting here and doing an interview, its insane but um we started in high school. Just playing for fun & we were not Christians at the time and we came to know that a little more and we became more serious. We were putting everything we had into this and pretty much stopped doing everything else everybody graduated high school I was still in high school, and I ended up doing home schooling for my senior year, so we could tour, so we toured
And your parents allowed you to do that?
Yea, I just ordered some stuff online about home schooling I got my high school diploma and everything.
Did any of you go to college?
Our guitarist went to college but he quit
Have you got aspirations to continue with education, once the band.
Not really unless its something like art school, because I do a lot of art and do a lot of media stuff / videos
That would be a really interesting road to go down getting into video / media design work
Thats what I want to do
So from now what does it feel like to see all your hard work with a critically acclaimed (yes I did the hand motions in a sarcastic English formDaniel found this humorous) within the scene. Which appears to be receiving much applause from both zines and from word of mouth and to be headlining a tour in the UK
Oh its the craziest thing ever!
If you could sum it up in one word?
Its pretty incredible I guess, unreal really I find it strange when we stop off for gas at the service stations and then walk back to this bus, its untrue. I ask myself how is this real?
Does it feel more like a dream than reality?
Yea its definitely the greatest thing I could imagine. Its great.
Your also heading on to Europe after this? Where you are playing and which ones are you most looking forward too?
Were heading to Germany, Italy, Holland and Belgium. So Im going to be looking forward to playing in Berlin cause the last time we played there it was awesome and really cool. Our tour ends in Holland near Amsterdam and Im meeting up with some friends, hiring a van and going through France and Italy.
I wanted to know was there a concept with the album layout?
Not necessarily, I guess people can take from it what they want. We just told the people who were doing the artwork that we wanted something crazy I guess and thats the first thing he came up with and we though it was amazing. A guy name Ryan Clark did it, him & his brother (Dom Clark) are in a band called Training for Utopia and they are also on Solid State. They sound like our more chaotic partsreally, really, really good if I had a copy on me Id give it to you now. The other Design Company that did our artwork is called Asterik.
Could you also explain the content of the lyricsthere were none in the CD layout
It was supposed to have been but they are in fact printed in the first pressing of the CD. The lyrics should be inside on all the pages. It came out way lighter than it should have been which sucks but its kind of cool. I dont know very much about the lyrics we actually had a different singer on the CD. Our singer on the CD quit the band so I dont really know too much about it some of its personal some of its not.
The week before the CD was released the singer and bass player both quit the band. They just felt that there time with the band was done. It was kind of like they went in a different direction and we knew if the band was supposed to go on that it would all work out and its definitely turned out for the better. We did a tour with 18 Visions, Everytime I Die and Hopesfall thinking about it, if the band was supposed to have gone on it would have worked; we got a new singer and also a bassplayer.
Go to www.normajeannoise.com for those lyrics.
We all know Norma Jean was the original name of Marilyn Monroe and you probably get asked this every single time you do an interview but were there any specific reason behind the name?
That was the original reason behind it. We looked into it a little bit more and we found out that Norma means pattern, and we were going to use the word pattern in our name originally like the something pattern or pattern in our name but we couldnt think of anything. Then we found out that Norma means pattern and we looked up Jean and it means grace & mercy together Norma Jean means patterns of grace and mercy. So we thought that was pretty cool
As a joke you should have T-shirts printed up with that on it. What were your parents like when they heard the album? I have a funny little story to tell youI interviewed From Autumn To Ashes last year and Ben the singer was telling me how his mum and dad would wear the bands T-shirts around town and kids would come up to them and ask how do you know FATA? They would then say Its actually my sons band so
Do your parents like your music?
My mum doesnt necessarily like our music but she says when were on tour she will listen to it in the car sometimes and think about me and stuff.
Do they all miss you?
Yea, but all of our parents are really supportive! They have been the whole time, its well cool.
Which leads onto the next question. You grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, what were your childhoods like what were the areas you were brought up in like?
Most of us lived right outside of the (incoherent) but our two new guys, are from different places like our new singer is from Alabama, which is the state right next to Georgia and our new bass player grew up all over the place in Alaska, Michigan, Florida.
Because of his parents?
Yea, Now he lives in Atlanta too but as for childhoods pretty much I played in the woods a lot, built wood fires
Do you live in Atlanta cause its a big city?
The suburbs like 20 minutes outside the city centre.
What are the communities like, because I know like in Swindon, there isnt much of a community feel, its a go-go-go materialistic town and all that
Theres a little down town area, but its a pretty big city with lots and lots of people, like the high school I went to had about 1,000 kids in one grade (school year) like when I graduated there were a thousand of us.
Is there a subject in interviews which is never touched upon but youd want to talkabout
(Daniel laughs ok so its a daft question) not really?
Are any of you straight edge?
Nah
Not Christian Straight Edge?
We dont drink, smoke or do drugs, but
What is your opinion of straight edge & the kids that get into it?
As far as I know most of the straight edge kids are cool, Ive met a lot of kids who come out to our shows who are straight edge.
Do you get a lot of straight edge kids coming to the shows?
Yea definitely but its not really like, I think its a cool thing for those kids if thats what they need to do at that time, its definitely helped a lot of kids stay off drugs
Were you raised with a Christian background?
No, not really, as far as it goes none of us were really brought up as Christians. I guess the two new guys were but before they were in the band none of the band had been raised Christians, we all moved towards it together as friends, we all became Christians within a couple of weeks.
Was there any particular reason?
We had met some kids at our high school who had a Christian band, and we really didnt know what that was and they invited us to a show and we all became friends one day they invited me and our guitarist Scotty to a service. Id been for Christmas & Easter services before.
What sort of church?
It was non-denominational
If you want to know about Christianity you shouldnt have to have the information forced upon you
Definitely
Thats one of the things I think puts people off getting into something like Christianity, they dont realise that you dont have to go to church, you can be Christian and I suppose read the bible if you have the time, but mainly just living a good life
The bible is the standard for Christian living like its definitely helped me as a Christian. The bible is what I believe, its what tells us how to live a Christian lifestyle. Church is definitely good for building you up and encouraging you in life.
I actually got chucked out of Sunday school when I was younger I didnt feel the need to go or had the understanding whereas now its different.
There is no way you can understand such stuff at a such a young age but were definitely not about forcing our beliefs on everybody but everyone in our band is Christian its pretty much the reason we do it and that we stay on the road so much.
Is that what gives you the drive and inspiration? I know from interviewing bands it takes a lot to be in one and tour all the time with the same people and there annoying little habits, not only are you making a monetary commitment. Being in a band can leave you out of pocket, but if you have a wife and kids to support as well I can only imagine what a world of stress it must become
What was it that interested you in the label (Tooth & Nail) did you get offers from other companies?
We really werent that good back then so we didnt really have any cool offers, there were a couple of other labels, they have most of our favourite bands, Christian hardcore bands like Zao.
Are they a Christian label?
People always say that, they are not trying to be a Christian label but most of the people who work there are Christians and they also distribute through Christian bookstores. The Solid State bands are all heavy but Tooth and Nail is like mostly Christian bands.
Solid State also distributes their music through Christian bookstores?
Yea
Do a lot of people go to Church in the US
I guess, most people dont go, even before I was a Christian I knew nothing about the bible nothing about being Christian I would have though I was a Christian I grew up hearing about it in America everyone is kind of Christian ever if they dont know it.
When ever I look in an American bands thank yous the first one is usually a spiritual thankyou
I think many Americans even if they havent been to Church say that they are Christian
(Some of the guys from Me without You start hollering we inevitably loose our place and revert back to the conversation involving bands on solid state)
a band called Spitfire, Living Sacrifice, Zao, Training For Utopia all good bands we just ended up signing with them, but its a big label Solid State is part of Tooth and Nail which is then half owned by EMI its like a million dollar company, theve probably released like 150 CDs but I dont know. Its pretty much like being on a major but it is still independent. In America there is a store called hot topic and its a cool kind of store, they sell like our CDs and merch. Its amazing. They sell like our shirts, Converge, Every Time I Die, 18 Visions its really cool.
Can you remember what you were doing when you found out about the deal and did you all celebrate?
Its really so long now I really dont remember I think I was just hanging out by my self in my room and I called the rest of the guys, Ive done our booking for the last 4/5 years Ive booked all of our tours
Did you sort this one out?
No we just worked with an agent at The Agency Group they book anybody from the Foo Fighters, The Strokes to Poison the Well so its a big agency.
Describe the perfect show?
When it sounds good on stage, (what about when the kids go nuts?) Its the most amazing thing ever, when kids are singing along and getting into it, jumping off stage and stuff, we havnt really had too much of that over here cause many of the kids dont know our songs but a lot of the kids have been singing along
Whats you reaction to kids asking you to sign something?
Im not like bothered by it, well do it, we think its kind of odd but whatever, if kidss want us to thats fine we wont turn them away!
How would you describe each of your personalities?
Our singer is really shy, sticks to himself a lot. I do all the business I guess, Scotty is the funny weird one I guess, were all pretty goofy and dumb its kinda hard to say what each person is like cause it depends on there moods at the time.
Where abouts do go to practise your songs?
It kind of changes, we used to practise in our old singers house but now our church lets us practise there, as of now we use the church
And what do they think about it?
They are totally supportive, they dont like the music but weve played in our church a few times they are really cool about it. Our friend runs a venue to put on shows which the church owns, its cool when hardcore bands come through. As far as the writing goes we havnt really written much with our new bass player and singer. I write a lot of the guitar parts as well as playing the drums. So Ive been writing a lot of the new stuff. Yea last week when we played Nottingham we got to the show really early and the sound guy wasnt there yet so we sat there and had a practise and I showed the rest of the guys this song I had written at home.
What about recording again
Probably at least another yet, were hoping to come back over here maybe this fall.
What sort of bands have you been impressed with recently?
Theres a new band on Solid State called Beloved, there CD is going to be coming out in a month, Me Without You. There some of our best friends, Converge, Dillenger Escape Plan, Botch.
My older sister kind of got me into music when I was like 11 or 12 and I was skating a lot.
Any shout outs to give, like websites to check out?
www.killingthecamera.com www.normajeannoise.com
